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I know I’ll Regret Saying This

The idea that there will be 21 billion IoT-enabled points of sale by 2020 is utterly insane:

“Working with Visa as a partner, IBM today unveiled a new effort to bring the point of sale for anything to, well, pretty much anywhere there’s an adequately intelligent device connected to the IoT. That could mean nearly 21 billion potential points of sale by 2020, according to a recent IoT prediction from the analyst firm Gartner Inc.”.

How on earth did these devices get manufactured and deployed in just 3 years? What security is implemented to protect the token? How are the payment credentials managed by the owner? What banks are issuing them? Can the token namespace support 21 billion credentials? What the heck are these devices buying? The article uses the oft described automobile story:

“For example, a motorist with a car connected to the Watson platform might be able to receive an alert when a car part needs to be replaced and then order that part or schedule a service appointment with a single push of a button. Through IoT-integrated payments that could connect cars and gas pumps, the driver could also pay for gas automatically when filling up at a service station.”

Roughly 78 million cars are sold annually worldwide. If every car sold included a credential in 2017, that would account for 312 million IoT devices. OK, I’m only short 20.688 billion.

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